FALSE: No Havana teacher has tested positive for COVID-19
Image from WhatsApp A viral social media post claims that a teacher at a school in Havana, Windhoek, has tested positive for COVID-19, but no evidence has been found to back up this claim. The post claims that the teacher’s husband is a police officer who escorted a Romanian couple (Namibia’s first confirmed cases of […]
FALSE: Bogus UNICEF bulletins mislead with coronavirus advice
Image source: Facebook Debunked COVID-19 related bulletins that purportedly emanate from UNICEF continue to mislead and misinform on social media. The advice bulletins have taken various forms, but the messages have remained the same, since they first started appearing online sometime in February 2020. The latest version of these fake United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) […]
FALSE: Dark skin and African genes do not prevent coronavirus infection
Image source: news-af.feednews.com Viral social media posts have falsely claimed that dark-skinned people and those with African genes are less prone to COVID-19 infection. A version of the claims appeared in a recent post shared via social media since early March 2020. The shared post was published on a website called Afriupdate News , which […]
FALSE: Israeli scientists have not created a COVID-19 vaccine
Image source: WhatsApp A false viral social media post has been pushing the claim since late February 2020 that Israeli scientists have created a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. The false social media post, of someone holding up a vial labelled ‘Coronavirus Vaccine’, has been making the rounds on social media globally for a few […]
FALSE: Calling a boycott of independence celebrations is not ‘treason’
Engel Nawatiseb – Image courtesy: Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Deputy information minister Engel Nawatiseb recently wrongly claimed that instigating Namibians to boycott Independence Day was “tantamount to treason”. Nawatiseb’s claim followed a press conference of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) Youth League on 24 February 2020 at which the league’s secretary general, Bensen Katjirijova, called […]
UNPROVEN: Police chief claims crime decrease with incomplete data
Image courtesy: One Africa TV Recently Namibian Police chief Ndeitunga misleadingly claimed a drop in crime using crime figures for only three quarters of the 2019/20 financial year. Inspector-general Sebastian Ndeitunga made the claim in a statement released to the media on 3 February 2020 by the head of the police’s public relations division, deputy […]
MOSTLY FALSE: President’s corruption-related claims at Cabinet opening are misleading
Photo courtesy: Namibian Presidency on Facebook President Hage Geingob made various off-the-mark statements about corruption-related matters during his opening address at the first Cabinet meeting of 2020. Towards the end of the speech, that was broadcast live on television and via social media on the morning of Tuesday, 4 February 2020, the president touched on […]
MOSTLY FALSE: Graphic of questionable origin misleads with coronavirus ‘facts’
The graphic has been viral on social media and features in Namibian media reports about the coronavirus outbreak that has spread from China to the rest of the world. The graphic has especially been going viral among WhatsApp groups where it keeps recurring and circulating since about Monday, 27 January 2020, as far as Namibia […]
FALSE: Viral message about coronavirus is a global hoax
The fake message appears to be meant to cause alarm and makes unverified claims about what to eat or drink and other steps to take to stay healthy. The world has become gripped by the outbreak of a Novel Coronavirus, labeled 2019-nCoV by international health authorities, in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in that country’s […]
FALSE: Madonsela didn’t say ‘black people use racism as an excuse for their failures’
A viral post alleges that former South African Public Protector Thuli Madonsela made the statement in a Facebook post. It’s fake. The purported Facebook post has been recurring and circulating in Namibian WhatsApp groups, and on other social media platforms, since early January 2020 starts off as follows: The fake Madonsela post has been spread […]